Although I was only 8>10 years old at the time it seems the late 1950’s early 60’s was an exciting time for audio. A lot was emerging and challenging the old ways. It was clearly a transition period. Tube equipment still reigned supreme with a good example being the Sansui SM-30 receiver that had 23 tubes total & 15 watts output each channel. But then there was TEC S-25 solid state unit that we would later call an integrated amp with 34 WPC. FM stereo multiplex was advancing but there were many receivers with 2 completely independent AM/FM tuning scales. Partly this was done because early stereo had 1 channel on AM & 1 channel on FM.
Speaker components were rapidly changing. People were moving from ceramic TT carts to the newfangled magnetic pickups. Be sure & buy a stereo cart, cuz it plays mono too!
And as for stereo itself it was met with much cynicism & suspect as quad was in the 70’s. Letters to the editor said that a mono recording captured all the information in a music hall, what do we need stereo for? Another said that it is hard enough to afford 1 good speaker much less 2. They would rather have a good sounding mono system then a medium or poor quality stereo. And where in the world would you even put a 2nd speaker? Many times someone would do a piece meal upgrade to stereo with a speaker nowhere near matching the original mono speaker. You know, buy something as cheap as possible just to see if stereo is worth it. Most likely it wasn’t with that approach.
Early stereo recordings hit people over the head with extravagant stereo effects. This of course caused a back lash with more conservative audiophiles. It seemed there was an urgent need to un-do stereo for lack of a better description. People were advised to place stereo speakers just a few inches apart to avoid the dreaded ping pong effect. Many pieces of equipment had blend controls, by switch or variable, to keep things from being “too” stereo. Some equipment even had a dedicated center ch out, these products were now labeled three channel stereo in ads & by salesmen.
Edward Tatnall Canby addressed that last point in his usual perceptive eloquent manner in the February 1960 issue of AUDIO magazine. He said no system should be called 3 channel unless it is recorded & reproduced from beginning to end in discrete 3 channel. His closing paragraph is both humorous in retrospect yet perfect for that time period:
AUDIO ETC
Speaker components were rapidly changing. People were moving from ceramic TT carts to the newfangled magnetic pickups. Be sure & buy a stereo cart, cuz it plays mono too!
And as for stereo itself it was met with much cynicism & suspect as quad was in the 70’s. Letters to the editor said that a mono recording captured all the information in a music hall, what do we need stereo for? Another said that it is hard enough to afford 1 good speaker much less 2. They would rather have a good sounding mono system then a medium or poor quality stereo. And where in the world would you even put a 2nd speaker? Many times someone would do a piece meal upgrade to stereo with a speaker nowhere near matching the original mono speaker. You know, buy something as cheap as possible just to see if stereo is worth it. Most likely it wasn’t with that approach.
Early stereo recordings hit people over the head with extravagant stereo effects. This of course caused a back lash with more conservative audiophiles. It seemed there was an urgent need to un-do stereo for lack of a better description. People were advised to place stereo speakers just a few inches apart to avoid the dreaded ping pong effect. Many pieces of equipment had blend controls, by switch or variable, to keep things from being “too” stereo. Some equipment even had a dedicated center ch out, these products were now labeled three channel stereo in ads & by salesmen.
Edward Tatnall Canby addressed that last point in his usual perceptive eloquent manner in the February 1960 issue of AUDIO magazine. He said no system should be called 3 channel unless it is recorded & reproduced from beginning to end in discrete 3 channel. His closing paragraph is both humorous in retrospect yet perfect for that time period:
Read the full article here:
AUDIO ETC
